Internal combustion engine using a water-based mixture as fuel and method for operating the same

ABSTRACT

An internal combustion engine includes a cylinder with a combustion chamber and a piston selectively changing the volume of the combustion chamber. The combustion chamber receives a mixture of air, hydrogen and a liquid fuel consisting essentially of water and a flammable, preferably non-fossil, substance. The contents of the combustion chamber are ignited generating power.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/036,952 filed on Sep. 25, 2013,which application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure pertains to a method and apparatus for operatingan internal combustion engine using a fuel consisting of water and awater-soluble flammable substance that is injected into a mixture ofhydrogen and air.

2. Description of the Related Art

The use of fossil fuels for engines that are used, for example, in carsand other vehicles, as well as many other engines used for a variety ofpurposes, is based on a very old concept based on the internalcombustion engines developed in the nineteenth century. Despite intenseresearch and development for alternate fuels for the last 50 years,fossil fuel derived from petroleum or natural gas, is still essentiallythe primary source of energy almost all the internal combustion enginespresently in use all over the world.

As a result, the world supply of fossil fuels have been severelydepleted creating a shortage, and the price of oil has been climbing forthe past 40 years. In addition such fuels are very polluting and somesuggest that it has either been the primary cause or has contributedsubstantially to global warming. All these factors led to many effortsto find and harness renewable energy sources other than traditionalfossil fuels. Several alternative fuels have been introduced in the pastfew years to reduce the impact of petroleum depletion, including hybridcars, electric cars, bio diesel, hydrogen based cars, etc. However, noneof these solutions were effective. One reason for this lack of successis that they require a completely new infrastructure for the productionof the engines, as well as the production and distribution of the fuel.Moreover, most solutions proposed so far have been incompatible with theexisting engines. The cost of replacing all the existing fossil burningengines may be so high that it may render any solution based onalternate fuels unacceptable, at least in a short term basis.

Water as a source of fuel has been suggested by many in the past andnumerous experiments have been conducted testing such systems. The basisof such experiments is the fact that water can be separated in tohydrogen and oxygen and the resulting stoichiometric mixture can be fedto an internal combustion engine to generate power. However pastexperiments yielded unsatisfactory results. The main obstacle to theirsuccess is based on the fact that the energy required to separate thewater into its components is much greater than the energy produce by theengine. In addition the amount of H₂ mixture needed to run a typicalautomotive engine is too large to make such a system practical.

Systems are presently available on market that can be used asaccessories or add-ons to internal combustion engines using fossilfuels, however independent tests have shown that, in fact, these systemshave very little, if any, effect on the overall efficiency of theengine.

A system developed by the present inventors is described in twoco-pending applications includes means of generating from water andsupplying a small amount of hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture into a standardinternal combustion engine. (See U.S. Patent Application Publications2010/0122902 and 2011/0203917). More specifically, these co-pendingapplications describe an efficient process and apparatus for generatinga two-to-one mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, commonly referred to asbrown gas or HHO. The mixture helps increase the efficiency of theconventional internal combustion engine by burning the fossil fuel moreefficiently. While this latter system is much more efficient thanpreviously described systems, its efficiency is still limited by theamount of hydrogen and oxygen produced on board a vehicle. Moreover, theinternal combustion engine described is still burning a fossil fuel.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Briefly, an internal combustion engine includes a cylinder with acombustion chamber having a variable volume as defined by areciprocating piston in a generally conventional mariner. Hydrogen andair are initially fed into the combustion chamber. Then, a fuel in theform of fine droplets of liquid is injected into the compressedcombustion chamber. The resulting liquid/gas mixture is then compressedto a very high pressure, which causes the temperature to rise, and anignition device causes combustion. The combustion results in hot andpressurized gases that cause the piston to move and generate power.Advantageously, the fuel consists essentially of water and a flammablesubstance. The flammable material is an alcohol, acetone, aldehyde orother flammable, preferably non-fossil substance that is soluble inwater. (The term non-fossil is used to refer to a fuel that is notderived substantially from fossil-base, non renewable materials, suchoil or natural gas, but from a renewable source.) Preferably the fuelcontains approximately 10-40% flammable material by volume.

The system and method described herein can be adapted to any engine suchas rotary and jet engines and are not limited to a piston based as longas the engine can be used to implement the basic principle of thedisclosure. This basic principle includes (1) mixing hydrogen and airwith a solution of water and a flammable, water soluble fuel (2)compressing the mixture to a high pressure to create high heat and avery explosive mixture in a combustion chamber, and (3) igniting theexplosive mixture to cause the sudden expansion of such gases and theformation of steam thereby generating mechanical power.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, an internalcombustion engine for use with only non-petroleum fuel is provided, theengine including at least one cylinder having a combustion chamber, anintake manifold in selective fluid communication with the combustionchamber, a hydrogen source configured to provide hydrogen and an oxygensource configured to provide oxygen, at least one of the hydrogen sourceand the oxygen source in fluid communication with the intake manifold toprovide at least one of hydrogen and oxygen to the combustion cylinderthrough the intake manifold. The engine further includes a fuel sourceconfigured to provide a fuel consisting essentially of water and anon-petroleum flammable substance, a fuel injector configured toselectively deliver the fuel from the fuel source to the combustionchamber, at least one piston in the at least one cylinder and structuredto move within the at least one cylinder and compress the hydrogen,oxygen, and fuel together in the combustion chamber, and an ignitiondevice configured to ignite the compressed hydrogen, oxygen, and fuel inthe combustion chamber to generate power.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a method isprovided for generating power using a non-fossil fueled internalcombustion engine, the method including the steps of: introducinghydrogen and oxygen into a combustion chamber of the internal combustionengine, the introducing including introducing at least one of thehydrogen and the oxygen into the combustion chamber via an intakemanifold; introducing a non-petroleum fuel consisting essentially ofwater and a flammable substance into the combustion chamber using a fuelinjector; compressing the hydrogen, oxygen, and the fuel with a pistonin the combustion chamber; and igniting the compressed hydrogen, oxygen,and fuel in the combustion chamber to create hot compressed gases andgenerate power.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the disclosure in which H₂, air andan aqueous solution forming a fuel is introduced directly into thecombustion chamber of the engine with the H₂ and the air beingintroduced through a common intake;

FIGS. 2A and 2B show sectional and side views of some elements of aninternal combustion engine constructed in accordance with thisdisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment in which the ingredients are firstmixed in a mixing chamber before exploding.

FIG. 4 shows a third embodiment of the disclosure in which air isintroduced through the intake manifold and H₂ are introduced by way ofinjection directly to the compression chamber.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an engine 100 constructed in accordance with thisdisclosure. The engine includes a cylinder 10, with a reciprocatingpiston 12 driving a shaft (not shown) through a linkage 14. For example,an experimental engine 100 was constructed by the inventors, bymodifying a generic, off the shelf 400 cc Diesel engine.

The engine 100 further includes a conventional air intake manifold 26with an air intake 28 and a butterfly-type adjustment valve 30, anintake valve 64, an exhaust valve 66, an exhaust manifold 70 and a fuelinjector 48.

In a conventional four cycle Diesel engine, air is sucked in throughmanifold 26 into the combustion chamber 50 of the cylinder 10 while thepiston 12 moves down. The intake valve 64 than closes, the piston 12moves up and a Diesel fuel is injected by the injector 48 into thechamber 50. The piston 12 compresses the mixture of air and fuel andcombustion occurs. The piston 12 then moves down to drive the shaft andmoves up again, and the exhaust valve 66 opens exhausting the remaininggases through the exhaust manifold 70.

The modified engine 100 further includes a hydrogen source 20. In oneembodiment, source 20 is implemented as a reactor that generates astoichiometric H₂/O₂ gas mixture (herein referred to as brown gas) fromwater using electrolysis process. An example of such process isdescribed in more detail in U.S. Patent Application Publications2010/0122902 and 2011/0203917. The brown gas is fed through a tube 22and a valve 24 into intake manifold 26. It should be understood that theamount of brown gas introduced into the intake manifold as compared tothe amount of air (that inherently also includes oxygen) is so smallthat the oxygen from the brown gas is negligible and can be ignored. Ineffect, the brown gas generator is used as a source of hydrogen.Obviously, other types of hydrogen generator can be used as alternativesto the brown gas generator as well.

The intake manifold 26 also receives ambient air through the air intake28 and, as will be discussed in more detail below, the amount of airflowing into the chamber 26 is controlled by the valve 30.

The engine 100 further includes a fuel tank 40 holding a fuel 42. Thefuel 42 is provided through a tube 44 by pump 46 to the fuel injector48.

The fuel in the fuel tank consists essentially of water and a flammablesubstance soluble in water. More specifically, it is believed that theflammable substance should be 30% soluble in water by volume. Theflammable substance may include, alcohol, acetone, aldehyde and othersimilar, preferably non-fossil substances or mixtures thereof. In apreferred embodiment, the flammable substance is an alcohol selectedfrom iso-propyl alcohol, iso butanol, propyl alcohol, butyl alcohol,ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol or a mixture of such alcohols.

Alternatively, the flammable substance is one of formaldehyde,acetaldehyde, butyraldehyde, benzaledehyde, cinnamaldehyde,tolualdehyde, furfural, retinaldehyde, glyoxal, malondaldehyde,succindialdehyde, glutaraldehyde, phtalaaldehyde or mixtures thereof.

The concentration of the flammable material can be in the range of5%-40%, and preferably 10%-35%. The inventors have found that, inparticular a mixture of about 70% water to 30% isopropyl alcohol isparticularly advantageous in that it provides a favorable cost vs.performance characteristics.

The fuel 42 from the fuel tank 40 is provided to the fuel injector 48 bypump 43 at a pressure in the range of 200-3,000 PSI. In one embodiment,the fuel is injected at a pressure of about 2000 PSI. Systems have beenproposed in the past in which water has been separated via electrolysisinto H₂/O₂ mixture and then was fed in to the engine intake system. Themain fuel used in such known engines was a fossil fuel. In the presentengine 100, the fuel 42 is essentially an aqueous mixture of a flammablematerial, preferably with no fossil components.

The engine 100 also includes a high-energy ignition system 60 providingelectrical current to an ignition device 62 (such as a standard sparkplug) extending into the chamber 50 as shown. The system 60 and sparkplug 62 are conventional components used for internal combustion enginesusing gasoline as fuel.

A timing controller 54 (typically including a microprocessor-not shown)receives input timing signals and a load signal indicative of the loadon the engine 100. The input timing signals are typically derived fromthe position of the crankshaft (not shown). The load signal isindicative of the load on the engine 100 are derived using conventionaltechniques. In response, the timing controller generates output timingsignals that control the operation of ignition device 62, fuel injector48, valve 24 and air intake valve 30, valves 64 and 66 open and close itcontrolled by a traditional camshaft (not shown).

Importantly, the engine 100 operates at a very high compression ratio.Typically, a conventional combustion engine operates at a compressionratio of around 15/1 to 18/1, except for some very special engines, suchas the engines used car racing. The present disclosure can beconstructed to operate in the range of 10/1-40/1, and preferably in therange of 25/1-35/1 or in the range of 15/1 to 30/1. An optimalcompression ratio is about 30/1. This high compression ratio can beachieved by shaping the head of the top of the piston to reduce thevolume of the combustion chamber. For example, as shown in FIGS. 2A and2B, the top surface of the piston 12 can be shaped with an indentation70. This indentation has a predetermined size and shape selected toprovide the required compression ratio and to generate turbulence infuel plume 52. For this purpose, the indentation 70 is placed so that asthe piston 12 is moves upward toward the top of the cylinder and theplume of fuel 52 is released by the fuel injector 48, the plume 52 usingthe shape of the surface of the indentation causing it to swirl.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, a single plume 52 is released bythe fuel injector 48 in every intake cycle. In an alternate embodiment,1-5 plumes are released, depending on several variables, such as thetype of fuel being used, the load on the engine, ambient temperature,etc. If more than the one plume is released, the first plume is releasedmuch earlier than the combustion point, to enrich the vapor mixture inthe chamber 50, and the other plumes are released just prior tocombustion, as well during combustion.

The engine 100 operates in a manner similar to a standard four-cycleinternal combustion engine but with some important differences. Duringthe intake cycle, as the piston 12 moves downward, the valves 30, 24 and64 open to allow air and brown gas to enter into and mix in chamber 50.As explained above, the ratio of brown gas to the volume of the cylinderis very small by volume (about 1/2%-2%), that the amount of O₂ in thebrown gas as compared to the amount of O₂ in the air is negligible and,and therefore only the hydrogen (H₂) is of any real importance. Next,during the compression cycle, valve 64 closes, and the piston 12 movesupward compressing the gases in chamber 50. At a predetermined point,e.g., typically at around 20 degrees btdc (before top dead center), aplume 52 of fine droplets of fuel is injected into the chamber 50 byfuel injector 48 and it mixes with the air/H₂ mixture. The piston 12keeps moving upward compressing further to a very high pressure andtemperature which create a very explosive content inside the combustionchamber 50. The mixture in chamber 50 is ignited (typically at top deadcenter) by spark plug 62 or other ignition device causing combustionthat converts the mixture within the chamber 50 into very hot and highlypressurized gases including steam. These gases force the piston 12 tomove down in the conventional manner. The next upward movement (exhaustcycle) of the piston 12 causes the remains of the combustion to beexhausted through manifold 70. These remains consist mostly of watervapor.

Surprisingly, at substantially no load, it was found that engine 100 canrun at 2500 RPM indefinitely, even when the air intake adjustment valve30 is closed, and therefore almost no air (and, very little oxygen) isprovided to the engine.

Apparently, during the compression and/or explosion stages least some ofthe water from the fuel disassociates into H₂ and O₂ and provides theoxygen necessary for the combustion. The remainder of the water isapparently turning into steam.

As the load on the engine increases, the valve 30 should be opened;otherwise the engine is slowing down and can stops running The amount ofair being introduced through valve 30 is dependent on the load on theengine and, since apparently the air is not needed for the combustion,it is believed that, as the load increases, in order to maintain RPM andproduce power against the load, a higher torque is needed, the air isneeded as a working gas that create a higher combustion pressure whichin turn create a higher torque when is pushing the piston down.

The operating parameters of the engine 100 as described are as follows:

Compression ratio 30/1;

Fuel 70% water 30% iso-propyl alcohol at ambient temperature;

H₂ 2-10 l/min at standard atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature;

Air 0-50 l/min at ambient pressure and temperature;

Fuel pressure 200-3000 PSI. An outside range would be 200-10,000 PSI.

If multiple injections are used, the first injection or pilot consistsof 5%-30% of the total fuel and the remainder is then rationed duringthe combustion cycle.

While presently the exact phenomenon occurring in the cylinder portion50 during explosion is not fully understood, it is believed that some ifnot all of the water from the fuel mixture also disassociates in thecylinder into H₂ and O₂ and provides more fuel for conversion which istriggered by the H₂/O₂ that is fed in to the chamber. It was found thatthe process worked well when a volume of 2 ml of the H₂/O₂ gas mixturewas provided to the engine for every revolution. Since the engine is a400 ml (or 400 cc) engine. The amount of H₂/O₂ provided for eachrevolution is about ½%-2% of H₂ by volume.

As discussed above, the fuel is preferably a solution of water and aflammable liquid substance. In addition an additive can be added, suchas a non-corrosive material that increase the conductivity of the waterat high pressure during combustion thereby helping the separation of thewater to H₂/O₂.

The techniques shown can be easily applied multiple cylinder, inaddition to a regular piston or a rotary engine, the disclosure can bedeveloped turbine and jet engine as well.

For example a conversion of a Diesel based engine is fairly simple, onlythe head is needed to be modified in order to introduce the ignitiondevice, a high power ignition system, the shape of the piston and thecombustion chamber to allow a suitable compression ratio, and a fairlysmall H₂/O₂ reactor (or other H₂ source) need to be added, making thissolution an inexpensive and simple to introduce to the market place.

Since water is practically available in any fuel station, no maininfrastructure needed to be created. The flammable substance can beautomatically mixed with clean water and fed in to the fuel tank of thevehicle.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment. In this embodiment, engine 200 is verysimilar to engine 100. The difference is that a novel mixing chamber 210is provided at the top of the cylinder 10 in communication with thecylinder portion 50 where the combustion takes place. The H₂/O₂ mixtureis fed by a second injector 220 into this mixing chamber 210 (ratherthan into the chamber 50). Thus, the mixing chamber 210 receives boththe fuel mixture 42 and the H₂/O₂ mixture. These materials mix with eachother and are sucked into the portion 50 when required through a channel230.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment 300. In this embodiment, the water fuelmixture and the H₂/O₂ mixture are both fed directly into the combustionchamber.

In other words, the H₂/O₂ mixture can be fed to the engine in threedifferent ways: into the manifold, into a mixing chamber, or into thecombustion chamber itself.

The present disclosure has several advantages. First, it makes use ofcommonly available renewable substances as fuel, instead of relying onnon-renewable fossil substances. It is believed that the disclosure ismuch more efficient and similar engines using on fossil-based fuels andcan generate more power. Third, during the experiments performed on theengine, the exhaust from the engine was very clean, minimal pollutionbeing observed, and even in a non-ventilated area there was no visiblesmoke, nor did the inventor found any difficulty breathing.

Numerous modifications may be made to this disclosure without departingfrom its scope as defined in the appended claims.

For example, several improvements to the foregoing engine and methodhave been implemented and tested. An engine originally designed to workon diesel fuel has been modified to work with a water-based fuel. Theengine, according to the manufacturer specifications, should produceabout 9 HP at 3000 RPM. The engine was tested before implementing theimprovements of the present disclosure and in fact it produced a maximumof 7 HP at 2500 rpm. This measurement was done in a laboratory using awater break dynamometer. The instruments used included a Land and Sea 7″water break absorber and a Dyno-Max Data acquisition system.

When converting the engine to work on water-based solution, manydifferent configurations were tested. From the beginning it was observedthat while a fairly high torque measurement was achieved at low RPMsimilar to a diesel based engine, the best performance results wereachieved with a compression ratio between 15:1 to 20:1. It was notedthat the higher the compression ratio, the higher the torque results.

The first test of the modified engine produced about 2.4 HP at 1500 RPM.Some water exiting the tailpipe was observed, which is a sign of aninefficient burn. In a traditional combustion cycle, once the fuel andair is compressed at top dead center or just before, the fuel is ignitedand maximum pressure is created just after top dead canter. With thefuel of the present disclosure, the process of reaching the highestpressure takes longer because the water needs to break in toHydrogen/Oxygen, then it is ignited. In the next stage the water turnsto steam, which further increases the pressure. In order for maximumpressure to be accumulated at top dead center of the piston travel, anadvance ignition is required. In the present disclosure an advanceignition of about 20 to 30 degrees was sufficient, depending on theworking speed.

In addition the better results were achieved using a “Hot plug” for thespark plug. Furthermore, the cylinder head was modified to accommodatetwo spark plugs to obtain better results.

Fuel supply was designed similar to a GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection). Acam driven pump was used to produce a high pressure supply, as high as3000 PSI. In order to reach minimum droplet size at the injector,pressure during the injection needs to be as high as possible. Thereforethe injector is configured to be in sync with the pump cam lobe so as toinject the fuel during the lift of the pump piston or just after highpressure is achieved when the pump piston is at the top of its travel inthe cylinder.

The improvements mentioned above have showed that by modifying theengine to be more compatible with the fuel demonstrate similar or higherpower output. The engine was tested with all the mentioned advancementsand modification, and it surpassed the diesel based configuration,producing up to 7.8 HP at 2,000 RPM. In addition, the torque levelimproved by 10% over the diesel fuel configuration.

Another variation of the present disclosure is the option of injectingthe fuel into the manifold instead of directly into the cylinder.

The various embodiments described above can be combined to providefurther embodiments. Aspects of the embodiments can be modified, ifnecessary to employ concepts of the various patents, application andpublications to provide yet further embodiments.

These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of theabove-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, theterms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specificembodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should beconstrued to include all possible embodiments along with the full scopeof equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, theclaims are not limited by the disclosure.

1. An internal combustion engine comprising: at least one cylinderhaving a combustion chamber; an intake manifold in selective fluidcommunication with the combustion chamber; a source of air configuredfluid communication with the intake manifold to provide air to thecombustion cylinder through the intake manifold; a fuel sourceconsisting essentially of water and alcohol; a fuel injector configuredto selectively inject the fuel from the fuel source to the combustionchamber; at least one piston in the at least one cylinder and structuredto move within the at least one cylinder and compress the air and fueltogether in the combustion chamber with a compression ratio in the rangeof 10:1 to 40:1; and an ignition device configured to ignite thecompressed air and fuel in the combustion chamber to generate power. 2.The engine of claim 1 wherein the fuel is injected into the combustionchamber at a pressure in the range of 200-10,000 PSI.
 3. The engine ofclaim 1 wherein the compression ratio is 15:1.
 4. (canceled)
 5. Theengine of claim 1 wherein the fuel source consists essentially of 70%water and 30% alcohol hydrogen source is configured to be in selectivefluid communication with the combustion chamber via an injector and theair source is configured to be in selective fluid communication with thecombustion chamber via the intake manifold.
 6. The engine of claim 1wherein the alcohol is ethyl alcohol.
 7. The engine of claim 1 whereinthe alcohol is a mixture of isopropyl and ethyl alcohols.
 8. A method ofgenerating power using internal combustion engine, the methodcomprising: introducing air into a combustion chamber of the internalcombustion engine; introducing a fuel consisting essentially of waterand alcohol into the combustion chamber using a fuel injector;compressing the air and the fuel with a piston in the combustion chamberwith a compression ratio in the range of 15:1 to 40:1; and igniting thecompressed air and fuel in the combustion chamber to generate hotcompressed gases and generate power.
 9. The method of claim 8 whereinthe introducing a fuel comprises injecting the fuel into the combustionchamber at a pressure in the range of 200-10,000 PSI.
 10. The method ofclaim 8 comprising mixing the air and fuel in a mixing chamber prior tothe introducing.
 11. The method of claim 8 wherein the compressingcomprises compressing with a compression ratio of 15:1.
 12. The methodof claim 8 wherein the introducing a fuel comprises introducing alcoholthat is an ethyl alcohol.
 13. The method of claim 8 wherein theintroducing a fuel comprises introducing alcohol that is a mixture ofisopropyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol.
 14. The method of claim 8 whereinthe introducing a fuel comprises introducing a fuel that consistsessentially of 70% water and 30% alcohol.
 15. The method of claim 8wherein the introducing a fuel comprises introducing a fuel thatconsists essentially of 70% water and 30% alcohol and the 30% alcohol isa mixture of isopropyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol. 16.-17. (canceled) 18.A vehicle, comprising: an internal combustion engine for use with theengine comprising: at least one cylinder having a combustion chamber; anintake manifold in selective fluid communication with the combustionchamber; a source air in fluid communication with the intake manifold toprovide air to the combustion cylinder through the intake manifold; afuel source configured to provide a fuel consisting essentially of waterand alcohol; a fuel injector configured to selectively inject the fuelfrom the fuel source to the combustion chamber; at least one piston inthe at least one cylinder and structured to move within the at least onecylinder and compress the air and fuel together in the combustionchamber with a compression ratio in the range of 15:1 to 20:1; and anignition device configured to ignite the compressed air and fuel in thecombustion chamber to generate power.
 19. The vehicle of claim 18wherein the fuel is injected into the combustion chamber at a pressurein the range of 200-10,000 PSI.
 20. The vehicle of claim 18 wherein thecompression ratio is 15:1.
 21. The vehicle of claim 20 wherein hydrogenis introduced into the combustion chamber.
 22. The vehicle of claim 20further comprising a hydrogen source that is configured to be inselective fluid communication with the combustion chamber via aninjector and the source of air is configured to be in selective fluidcommunication with the combustion chamber via the intake manifold. 23.The vehicle of claim 22 wherein the alcohol is ethyl alcohol.
 24. Thevehicle of claim 23 wherein the compressed air and fuel includes about½% to 10% hydrogen by volume.
 25. The method of claim 8 wherein theintroducing a fuel comprises introducing a fuel that consistsessentially of 70% water and 30% alcohol and the 30% alcohol is an ethylalcohol.
 26. The vehicle of claim 18 wherein the fuel consistsessentially of 70% water and 30% alcohol and the 30% alcohol is amixture of isopropyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol.
 27. The vehicle of claim18 wherein the fuel consists essentially of 70% water and 30% alcoholand the 30% alcohol is ethyl alcohol.